Something so simple packed with so much lemon! I love making lemon rice. Back at home, I made it at least three times a week when I was younger. Today, I decided to jump back in time and create it again. This time, with a few tweaks that made it more successful than nine years ago. Using juice from an actual lemon gives the flavor more definition than using a bottle of lemon juice. It just tastes different. Plus, you get to use some of that flavor skin of the lemon in your dish! Lemon zest became my new favorite when making a dish where lemon was in the name and needed to be shining.
Turkey meatballs infused with onions and minced garlic melted into the meat itself, bound together with an egg and breadcrumbs. Seasonings such as coriander, ginger and cilantro were in these meatballs and brought a sort of earthiness to it that no one knew was needed. Cilantro, with its warm, nutty notes, paired beautifully with ginger and coriander in the meatballs. The bed of jasmine rice, a Thai fragrant rice with its faint floral note as well, mellowed with the lemon flavor. What could go better with jasmine rice and lemon than mint? Freshly chopped mint sprinkled over the rice is all this dish needed to be complete. I love the smell of mint and will continue using it in my dishes. Maybe not all, but definitely some!
Why this will be your go-to busy week meal
This dish was very easy to make. Nothing to complicated to do, or anything that’s needed to sit overnight. You can mise en place the night before (IE: chop the veggies, squeeze the lemon juice), but I would recommend just doing it the same night you’re going to make it. I wouldn’t exactly call this a one pot, as you need to bake the meatballs in an oven, but it was simple enough where I can call it a weekday meal for when you don’t want to do a lot of work in the kitchen, being you already did enough work at work today!
- Can I substitute ground beef instead of ground turkey? You can, but just omit the coriander and red wine vinegar, and use something else, such as cinnamon or curry powder for the spice, and soy sauce for the liquid. The point of the meatballs is to retain a sort of earthiness to it so it would match with the lemon rice, which is why I chose the spices for the turkey meatballs.
- Pair this with any Mediterranean-like sauce of your choice! For this recipe, I chose to make a tzatziki sauce and top it off with that. Click here for the recipe! However, you can pair this with a Greek vinaigrette, yogurt tahini sauce, aioli, or a mango chutney. If you don’t want to use a sauce to pair with this, that’s totally ok, but I recommend you do. It’ll bring more flavor to the dish and gives the meatballs something to bathe in, so to speak.
- Don’t go cheap on the rice! Meaning, don’t use regular white rice, or regular brown rice. I used jasmine rice for this because I had no basmati rice, but the main reason being jasmine rice is aromatic. When this rice is blended with more aromatics, such as shallots, garlic and lemon, the taste of the rice intensifies. I will quote one of my earlier recipe posts. Regardless of being posted with a Saffron rice recipe, the point still stands:
What’s the difference between jasmine rice and basmati rice? Does it matter? Let me start off by saying this: USE BASMATI RICE OR JASMINE RICE! ANYTHING ELSE WILL SACRIFICE THE FLAVOR AND TEXTURE. IT WILL NOT BE THE SAME. Well, to be quite honest, there is virtually no difference, however it is preferred to use either one of the rice varieties when making saffron rice. Jasmine rice hails from Thailand, while Basmati comes from India. Both grains of rice are especially aromatic. Basmati has a nuttier quality, whereas jasmine is faintly more floral. They are both of the long grain variety, however jasmine rice is more plump, soft and a bit more moist than basmati, which has a firmer chew and drier character. Basmati grains are extra long and thin, so they benefit more from soaking. Jasmine rice is a shorter, wider grain that just needs a few quick rinses to remove excess starch.
https://missravenskitchen.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/one-pot-garlic-chicken-thighs-and-saffron-rice/
Want the recipe? Click print below! Let me know how it came out for you by tagging me on Instagram (@missravenskitchen) and using #missravenskitchen! Let me know if I need to tweak anything.
Turkey Meatballs with Lemony Rice and Peas
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped 1/4 inch thick
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp fresh cilantro, minced (can use dried)
- 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs (*1)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire
- 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup frozen sweet peas
- 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the ground turkey, 1 grated garlic clove, yellow onion, egg, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, coriander, ginger, cilantro, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire, and red wine vinegar.
- Heat a large skillet with the olive oil on medium-high heat. Form meatballs about 1 1/4 inch thick (*2), and place in the skillet. Brown on both sides, about 5 minutes each. Remove the meatballs from the skillet, set the skillet aside for the rice, and place the meatballs onto the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165F. Set aside and cover. Start the rice while waiting.
- While the meatballs are cooking in the oven, in the same skillet you used for browning the meatballs, lower heat to medium and melt 1 tbsp of butter. Add the shallots and garlic and saute for one minute. Add the jasmine rice and toast for 3 minutes, or until it is aromatic. Add the lemon juice and water and boil for 15 minutes, or according to package directions(*3). During the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the peas. Once liquid is gone, turn off the heat and stir the rice to fluff it.
- Sprinkle with mint. Serve with meatballs on top.
Notes:
(*1) If you need to add more breadcrumbs to the meatballs, you can, but only if the meatballs feel too wet. If they are too wet, they will fall apart.
(*2) This makes about 8-10 meatballs. You can make the meatballs smaller to get more meatballs out of this recipe.
(*3) If the package directions for cooking the rice differ from this recipe, follow that instead. My rice was cooked fully with 2 cups of liquid for 1 1/2 cups of rice.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
616.20Fat (grams)
32.08Sat. Fat (grams)
8.66Carbs (grams)
44.96Fiber (grams)
4.27Net carbs
40.70Sugar (grams)
6.10Protein (grams)
37.46Sodium (milligrams)
308.65Cholesterol (grams)
174.33
Miss Raven's Kitchen 
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